Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant to Reopen and Sell Power to Fuel Microsoft’s AI System
It has taken the country four decades to recover from the media’s terrorizing the public about a nuclear plant disaster.
The last time I discussed nuclear power, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had just approved the construction of the country’s first fourth-generation nuclear reactor.
This is a very positive step in providing reliable energy to Americans that is also cost-effective.
I am happy to report that it appears the nation is beginning to recover from nuclear-phobia, which was brought on in large part by how the media portrayed the incident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
As a reminder, in 1979, the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant’s cooling malfunction caused part of the core to melt in the #2 reactor, which was destroyed. A couple of days after the accident, some radioactive gas was released, but not enough to cause any dose above background levels to local residents.
However, government miscommunication and media dramatics tainted the public perception of the safety of nuclear power.
“Garbled communications reported by the media generated a debate over evacuation. Whether or not there were evacuation plans soon became academic. What happened on Friday was not a planned evacuation but a weekend exodus based not on what was actually happening at Three Mile Island but on what government officials and the media imagined might happen. On Friday confused communications created the politics of fear.
The fear was enhanced by the release of the movie, “The China Syndrome“.
Now the TMI will restart operations in a deal to sell power to Microsoft as part of its goal rely on “carbon-free technology“.
The firm announced the 20-year deal would involve the restart of the Unit 1 reactor, “which operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades before being shut down for economic reasons exactly five years ago today.”
Microsoft will buy energy from the plant as part of its goal to help match the power its data centers use with carbon-free technology, according to a news release announcing the deal. The reactor is expected to be online in 2028, pending approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
An economic impact study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council found that reopening the plant will create 3,400 direct and indirect jobs, according to the news release. It would also add up to 837 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the power grid that can power more than 800,000 average homes.
Specifically, Microsoft’s energy purchase will power the company’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) data center. The increased use of nuclear power is likely to be a trend, as AI uses a lot of energy.
For years, data centers displayed a remarkably stable appetite for power, even as their workloads mounted. Now, as the pace of efficiency gains in electricity use slows and the AI revolution gathers steam, Goldman Sachs Research estimates that data center power demand will grow 160% by 2030.
At present, data centers worldwide consume 1-2% of overall power, but this percentage will likely rise to 3-4% by the end of the decade. In the US and Europe, this increased demand will help drive the kind of electricity growth that hasn’t been seen in a generation. Along the way, the carbon dioxide emissions of data centers may more than double between 2022 and 2030.
As I have noted before, There are two sources of energy that can cost-effectively power modern civilization: nuclear and fossil fuels. Firms that want “carbon-free” are going to have to embrace the power of isotopes.
Nuclear power generation is superior to all forms of energy, not only in terms of its material intensiveness, but also its capacity factor and highly efficient energy density.
A U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report stated that nuclear had an average capacity… pic.twitter.com/vFxfH9uigw
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) June 24, 2024
This article from The Breakthrough Institute (https://t.co/s79G5s5pfS) provides an in-depth analysis of the mining impacts of different clean energy technologies, emphasizing that nuclear energy has a significantly smaller mining footprint compared to solar and wind. For each… pic.twitter.com/aSRHUR9NhR
— Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki (@MatthewWielicki) September 17, 2024
It is interesting to note that most American adults support expanding nuclear power in the country, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. The polling indicates that 56% favor more nuclear power plants to generate electricity.
In conclusion, it has taken the country four decades to recover from the media’s terrorizing the public about a nuclear plant disaster. I fear the country will take just as long to recover from press-induced climate fear.
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Comments
Great news although i think it’s safer to build these underground inland than on islands. Just my .02
Every time severe weather even comes close to this the media will clickbait us to death on it.
It’s in central Pennsylvania, so it’s an island in the Susquehanna river, not like it’s in the ocean. Location-wise it’s well chosen as the area is geologically stable and you don’t get tend to get hurricanes that far inland.
“Underground”. This is why we can’t have nice things.
Not sure what the problem is here.
There are several advantages. this is just one example that describes reasons that I don’t feel like typing out:
https://energycentral.com/c/ec/underground-reactor-advantages
And nothing about China Syndrome? What are you, nuts?!?!?!?!
They should try a remake of that move since we’re doing everything 70s now, and remaking every movie ever made before.
Nevermind I didn’t realize how far inland Harrisburg is. No reservations.
I bet the new electricity that comes out of the plant will be radioactive.
It’ll be loaded with beta particles.
Free the electrons. They have rights!
From the anode to the cathode
Hey! That’s a dogwhistle that all Jews should diode!
Like GOP congressmen.
It’s OK, Chinese companies are developing lead-plated light sockets to sell you on Amazon.
They could have used Solar Energy. But they want to run the computers more than six hours a day.
Unfortunately for those 56% of adults who claim to support Nuke power many of their neighbors and quite a few among the 56% keep sending politicians into office at local, State and Federal level who oppose it. This seems particularly concentrated in the North East where instead they will use wind and solar. Lots of NE States and more than a few municipal gov’t have some very stringent energy production/use requirements coming into effect very soon that mandate closing nuke plants, coal fired electricity and limit Natural Gas. Gonna be some uncomfortable summers much less winters up there.
Three Mile Island suffered a far lesser fate than Chernobyl for many important reasons but both happened in the middle of the night…. as did Titanic and in respects Challenger. The overall exposure from the release of all radioisotopes from TMI while living 1 mile downwind of TMI was less than living in Denver for a similar one year period. For those that know how Denver is these days, staying quiet is an option. As I noted before, the only solution to power that allows for both climate concern and the environment is nukes. As seen in California, solar or wind means damaging climate or the environment to get some power…..
Saving a large collection of dirt, rock and water called earth to appease the climate gods is dumb.
So much for wind and solar. Oligarchs in charge. If Trump had proposed this there would have been massive push back.
Gotta have priorities, you know. For running Microsoft’s data centers you need the ultimate in reliability, so they get nuclear. For heating and running your home, you get solar because the reliability doesn’t mater, so stuff that only works half the time is fine.
I’m offgrid solar. I’m also not stupid so I have a propane generator backup to charge the batteries during the winter when we have storms.
At least it’s Microsoft’s AI and not Google’s.
“Gemini, show me an image of a survivor of the Three Mile Island incident.”
Starvation-ribbed 18th century Chinese peasant woman with black skin, covered in orange pustules.
Moreso, it was Jane Fonda (again) and The China Syndrome.
Nuclear is nice and we should be building lots of nuke plants but coal is the best fuel for the electrical grid’s backbone. Coal is the real workhorse of electrical generation and we have enough of it to last for centuries.
The consumer will end up paying Big Tech for AI and it will used to propagandize for the state. Bad news, just like smart phones. No need to think, until it’s too late.
Fact: People who evacuated the TMI area when they heard about the accident were in far more danger than if they’d just stayed put. Driving on a highway, even in optimum conditions, is a riskier activity than living next door to a nuclear power plant, even when it’s undergoing a TMI-like incident.
Fact: the NRC’s regulations are so insanely over-strict that if Grand Central Terminal were to apply for a license as a nuclear power plant it would be refused.
Petr Beckman was a bit of a nut about some things, but he was completely right about nuclear power. His book, The Health Hazards of NOT Going Nuclear is a little dated but still valid. I think I saw an edition that came out after Chernobyl, with a preface in which he covered what we had learned from that and from TMI, but his premise remained valid: that of all possible forms of power generation, nuclear is by far the safest and cleanest.
Add in the sheer volume of nuisance lawsuits against the planning, approval, construction, and operation of EACH of the reactors combined with a regulatory agency staffed with people who knew they would be able to step from their government job to a lucrative job with the green weenies fighting against the power plant that they were regulating. I’m amazed we’ve even gotten a watt out of nuclear in the last half-century.
Peter Beckman? Wasn’t he the Extra Sensory Perception guy at one of the NY universities? Got into ghosts? Actually had an unlicensed nuclear reactor in his firehouse office?
Petr, not Peter. And no, I don’t know who you’re thinking of, but it’s not this guy. Beckman was a professor at the University of Colorado, not anywhere in NY, and had nothing to do with ESP. Also I never heard that he built his own reactor.
He was a bit of a nut on some topics, but not on this one.
Even with all those references the joke went over your head.
I agree with joejoejoe below. /sigh/
(The movie is Ghostbusters – the good one from the 80s.)
“It would also add up to 837 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the power grid that can power more than 800,000 average homes.”
Or about 35 Al Gore, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey sized mansions
Nuclear power is great …. until you find out that the subcontracting and staffing are going to be subject to Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity insanity … Having a door plug fall out of a Boeing plane in flight is one thing …
three mile island has that
nice green glow to it
btw,
which is more dangerous to a politician:
three mile island
or
epsteins island
I think that old saw about not getting caught with a live boy or a dead girl answers that one.
For image repair, it’s being renamed 4.828 kilometer Island.
I’m honestly far more worried about Microsoft having an AI system that requires a nuclear plant to run it than I am about the nuclear plant itself.
It requires electricity. It makes no difference where the electricity comes from, but Microsoft wants to signal its green virtue by using electricity that doesn’t come from fossil fuels, so the electricity company is starting up the reactor. MS won’t be buying all the output, or even most of it.
Hate to have this guy in the audience when I’m doing open Mike night at the comedy club
And even more of Back To The 70s!
If Trump brought back the song “Tie A Yellow Ribbon (‘Round The Old Oak Tree)” for the American hostages in Gaza, it wouldn’t surprise me.
Is the attempt at recommissioning TMI a good thing? Indubitably yes. Is it a done deal in any way. Buggerall, no.
As long as we have Leftists running the government and bureaucracy, they will stall/kill it with lawfare. And if it reaches the point where it looks like it might reopen, anyone want to bet that Leftist “warriors” will not try to sabotage it?
Subotai Bahadur